http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/09/zawahiri.tape/index.html (CNN) -- Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared in a videotaped message Thursday on the Arabic-language TV news network Al-Jazeera, saying southern and eastern Afghanistan are controlled by the mujahedeen. Wearing a white turban and glasses, al-Zawahiri said that American forces are hunkered down and afraid to respond to advances of the mujahedeen, or holy warriors. "East and south Afghanistan is an open battlefield for the mujahedeen, while the liars are hiding in the big capitals," he said, a Kalashnikov assault rifle resting on the wall behind him. "The Americans are hiding now in trenches and they refuse to come out and meet the mujahedeen, despite the mujahedeen antagonizing them with bombing and shooting and roadblocks around them. Their defense focuses on air strikes which wastes America's money in just stirring up sand." Al-Zawahiri, 53, spoke in a studio-like setting. There were no dates referenced in the tape, so it was unclear when it was made. Al-Jazeera said it would release more of the tape in the hours ahead. Al-Jazeera's anchor said the mujahedeen claimed it had been getting a lot of support in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The anchor said it claimed that had it not been for the Pakistani army offensive along the border, the U.S. forces would have been "driven out a long time ago." A CIA spokesman said the agency is analyzing the tape to determine "whether it really is new" and what other information it might offer. U.S. intelligence officials said al-Zawahiri is believed to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. The video comes almost a year to the day since al Qaeda last released a videotaped message -- and follows the terror group's history of releasing video messages ahead of the anniversary commemorating the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Last year, on September 10, the group released video of bin Laden walking in a mountainous area with other al Qaeda members, with an audio message from al-Zawahiri calling on the mujahedeen to "attack and devour the Americans and bury them in the graveyard of Iraq." On September 9, 2002, al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape from bin Laden, who named the 9/11 hijackers and said, "When you talk about the invasion of New York and Washington, you talk about the men who changed the face of history and went against the traitors." The terror group has released audiotaped messages over the past year, but it has rarely used video since the 9/11 attacks. There currently are about 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, conducting daily patrols in remote mountain villages, mostly in the eastern part of the country. According to senior U.S. intelligence sources, groups of about 600 to 800 Taliban or al Qaeda fighters are able to roam in parts of Afghanistan, primarily in the south and east. The southeastern portion of Afghanistan is controlled mostly by Pashtun tribes and poses one of the greatest security threats to U.S. forces in the country.
This would have been a good post in the Afghanistan: What could have been... thread, SpaceCity, although it's big news. I didn't realize that these kinds of videotaped messages, from the very top people in al-Q, were that rare. Hopefully, intelligence will get something out of it and bomb the guy into little bits and pieces.
You know, you just can't give this kind of propaganda message any validity. He could be right as rain or wrong as Baghdad Bob.
There is no doubt in my mind that if we didn't go into Iraq, these bands would not exist. There were good reasons for Iraq, but to claim that it somehow helped in the current fight on terrorism is idiotic. We have a measly 13,000 troops in Afghanistan (where we know our enemies are hiding!) and well over 100,000 in Iraq. And this is the person who makes a better anti-terrorism President? Again, hate to quote Slick-WIllie, but 'Wisdom and Strength are NOT mutually exclusive'.
